Ukraine-Russia war: Zelensky calls Putin ‘slave to war’ at Munich conference and demands EU accession date

Volodymyr Zelensky denounced Vladimir Putin as a “slave to war”, telling the Munich Security Conference that Russia’s leader saw himself as a tsar but was driven entirely by conflict.

“He may see himself as a tsar, but in reality he is a slave to war,” the Ukrainian president said, days before the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion.

Zelensky said Russia’s attacks had damaged every power plant in Ukraine. “There is not a single power plant left in Ukraine that has not been damaged by Russian attacks. Not one,” he said. “But we still generate electricity.”

Kyiv has accused Moscow of deliberately targeting energy infrastructure to leave civilians without heat and power during winter. Zelensky again urged partners to speed up deliveries of air defence systems.

He also warned against pressuring Ukraine into territorial concessions ahead of fresh US-brokered talks next week. Drawing a parallel with the 1938 Munich Agreement, he said it would be “an illusion to believe that this war can now be reliably ended by dividing Ukraine”.

“With Russia, you cannot leave a single loophole Russians can use to start a war,” he said, insisting that any settlement must include firm security guarantees.

Drone strikes killed at least one person in Ukraine and one in Russia yesterday, officials said, as the two sides prepared for another round of talks in Geneva on Tuesday aimed at ending the war.

An elderly woman died after a Russian drone struck a residential building in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, Ukraine’s state emergency service said.

In Russia, a civilian was killed when a Ukrainian drone hit a car in the Bryansk border region, governor Alexander Bogomaz said.

Russia-backed authorities in the partially occupied Luhansk region said a Ukrainian airstrike wounded 15 people in a village there.

The exchanges followed a Ukrainian missile strike on the Russian border city of Belgorod on Friday that killed two people and injured five, according to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Volodymyr Zelensky has questioned how proposals for a free economic or security zone in Ukraine would work in practice, warning of serious risks if Russia were to test any foreign presence on the ground.

The Ukrainian president told the Associated Press in Munich that if foreign troops were deployed to patrol such a zone and Vladimir Putin chose to provoke them, their withdrawal could open the door to a “big occupation” and heavy losses.

“If Putin is given any opportunity for victory we don’t know what he will do next,” Zelensky said.

He described the model as carrying “big risks” both for Ukraine and for any country that agreed to guarantee its security, though he said he was prepared to discuss it as a potential compromise in exchange for support to rebuild the country.

Zelensky also said Moscow would have to accept monitoring of any ceasefire and return about 7,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war in exchange for more than 4,000 Russian prisoners held by Ukraine.

Russia’s decision to replace the head of its negotiating team ahead of the next round of US-brokered talks could be aimed at delaying progress, Volodymyr Zelensky said..

The Ukrainian president said he was surprised by Moscow’s move before the upcoming negotiations in Geneva.

He also said Russian opposition to any foreign troop presence in Ukraine indicated Vladimir Putin wanted to retain the option of attacking again in future.

During negotiations, Russian officials have insisted that Ukraine give up more territory in the east to end the war. Zelensky rejected that demand, calling it “a little bit crazy” to suggest Ukraine withdraw from its own land or exchange it.

Thousands of Ukrainians have been killed defending the Donbas region, he said, noting that around 200,000 people still live there and it would not be acceptable to effectively hand them over to Russia.

Russia is suffering “crazy losses” in Ukraine, tallying around 65,000 ⁠soldiers over the last two months, NATO secretary general Mark ⁠Rutte ​said on Saturday ⁠at the Munich Security ⁠Conference.

Separately, he told ​a ⁠media roundtable ‌that the NATO alliance was strong enough ‌that Russia would ‌not currently try to attack it.

“We will ⁠win every fight with Russia if they attack us now, and we have to make sure in two, four, six years that same is still the case,” he said.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said he met with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss the country’s security and ways to deepen defence and economic partnerships.